It’s not a Photoshopped Chevrolet, nor is it a custom. It is indeed a 1950 Oldsmobile sedan delivery, and no, Oldsmobile did not build one for John Q. Public. It built the vehicle for itself.
In 1950, soaring sales meant Oldsmobile could do and build almost anything it wanted, and on a few occasions, it did. Oldsmobile went racing, and it’s believed to have built just seven of these sedan deliveries, one for use at each of its factories.
The popularity of General Motors’ mid-level marque took off when Olds went from building solid but hum-drum straight-eight and six cars to exciting performance models with the 1949 introduction of the oversquare 135-hp, 303-cid Rocket V-8 engine. The hot V-8 made Olds a red-hot seller, especially with the new-for-’49 “88” series. The “88” shared its body structure with General Motors’ lightest cars for 1949, the freshly restyled B-body Chevrolet and Pontiac, but used the Rocket V-8 from the flagship Ninety-Eight.
Before 1949, Oldsmobiles would never have been considered race cars, but when the “88” hit the track with the new V-8, Oldsmobile kept blasting across the finish line first. Red Byron won the 1949 Daytona Beach, Fla., stock car race in an “88” coupe, and Oldsmobile took five of eight NASCAR Grand Nationals in 1949.
In addition to its on- and off-track performance, the dependability of the new Rocket 8 helped Oldsmobile sales skyrocket. In 1948, the last year Olds offered L-head engines across the board, the company sold 173,661 cars, which was good for seventh place in the industry sales race. When the Rocket V-8 replaced the L-head eight for 1949, sales climbed to a record 288,310 Oldsmobiles, still good for seventh. In 1950, sales hit the moon at 407,889 for the model year, propelling Oldsmobile into sixth place.
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